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Facebook reminds me of the story The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas - the story of the utopian city whose prosperity depends on the perpetual misery of a single

Facebook reminds me of the story The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas - the story of the utopian city whose prosperity depends on the perpetual misery of a single child. At its heart, Facebook can't be honest with what it is. Mark Zuckerberg can't admit to himself that what's good for Facebook is bad for society. That's why he says a lot about "community" and "connection" but never talks about advertising or monetization. Look at his updates - they never talk about the billions of dollars they make (money talk - that's taboo!) Facebook doesn't make money via advertising. Advertising is a billboard, or a TV commercial. Facebook makes money by selling your private data (oh you're showing signs of depression - try some prozac!). Facebook is a surveillance operation in a way that traditional advertising isn't. I have a friend who worked on the newsfeed team at Facebook. Nice guy. Smart guy. But he's unable to consider the broader ethical implications of what he's doing. In the Facebook paradigm more engagement = good. Facebook has contempt for the general public, and for that reason deserves contempt from the general public.

aetherson 9y ago
Facebook for the most part doesn't sell your data. They sell advertising. They tell you, "If you want to put a billboard for Prozac in front of depressed people, we'll do that for you." But they won't tell you who's depressed and let you do it yourself. There have been exceptions, but they are broadly speaking either from years ago, or were mistakes in the first place. Facebook is generally uninterested in giving away your information -- that is, after all, a big chunk of what makes them valuable. If everyone had the same information, they wouldn't be as able to sell ads.
- seem_2211 9y ago
  I think the difficulty in thinking about Facebook is that it sits in this strange middle ground, between targeted advertising (as it has traditionally been thought of) and direct selling of data. If you think about it on a spectrum, where traditional advertising lets you do some crude targeting (If I advertise on American's Next Top Model, I'll get a different audience than if I advertise in the Wall Street Journal) that lets audiences opting in and out based on individual choice (I don't have to watch America's Next Top Model, even if I have all the characteristics of an ideal viewer). No data is sold here. At the other end are people who sell leads - usually for B2B customers (here's the names and contact info for 500 IT Directors). Data is explicitly being sold here. Facebook sits somewhere in the middle which is why we don't quite know how to talk about it. We can target things like traditional advertising, but we are now also able to get explicit information on our targets, in a way that hasn't really been done before.
- lalos 9y ago
  What is the difference between an ad and abusing somebody who is in a weak position? There is a difference and targeted ads are dancing on that line, if you don't see this you should read on how people get recruited to sects. They don't advertise, they target people who can be easily be taken advantage of based on their behavior or emotions. I'm not saying it's wrong but there should be a limit on how and what can you target with ads or at least be transparent about it. "We have classified you as depressed" and see if users are happy about it.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - nlowell 9y ago
    I think the people selling anti-depressants would see themselves at helping the person in a weak position, since the medicine could potentially relieve them of some or all symptoms. The line of "abuse" is very hard to draw when someone is willingly buying and using a product designed to have value.
  - aetherson 9y ago
    The difference is that my parent poster said, "They don't sell ads, they sell your data."
- collyw 9y ago
  How are you so sure of that? Not saying your wrong but you seem very convinced of your own position. I have no idea what exactly they do with my data.

aetherson 9y ago

Facebook for the most part doesn't sell your data. They sell advertising. They tell you, "If you want to put a billboard for Prozac in front of depressed people, we'll do that for you." But they won't tell you who's depressed and let you do it yourself. There have been exceptions, but they are broadly speaking either from years ago, or were mistakes in the first place. Facebook is generally uninterested in giving away your information -- that is, after all, a big chunk of what makes them valuable. If everyone had the same information, they wouldn't be as able to sell ads.

seem_2211 9y ago
I think the difficulty in thinking about Facebook is that it sits in this strange middle ground, between targeted advertising (as it has traditionally been thought of) and direct selling of data. If you think about it on a spectrum, where traditional advertising lets you do some crude targeting (If I advertise on American's Next Top Model, I'll get a different audience than if I advertise in the Wall Street Journal) that lets audiences opting in and out based on individual choice (I don't have to watch America's Next Top Model, even if I have all the characteristics of an ideal viewer). No data is sold here. At the other end are people who sell leads - usually for B2B customers (here's the names and contact info for 500 IT Directors). Data is explicitly being sold here. Facebook sits somewhere in the middle which is why we don't quite know how to talk about it. We can target things like traditional advertising, but we are now also able to get explicit information on our targets, in a way that hasn't really been done before.
lalos 9y ago
What is the difference between an ad and abusing somebody who is in a weak position? There is a difference and targeted ads are dancing on that line, if you don't see this you should read on how people get recruited to sects. They don't advertise, they target people who can be easily be taken advantage of based on their behavior or emotions. I'm not saying it's wrong but there should be a limit on how and what can you target with ads or at least be transparent about it. "We have classified you as depressed" and see if users are happy about it.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- nlowell 9y ago
  I think the people selling anti-depressants would see themselves at helping the person in a weak position, since the medicine could potentially relieve them of some or all symptoms. The line of "abuse" is very hard to draw when someone is willingly buying and using a product designed to have value.
- aetherson 9y ago
  The difference is that my parent poster said, "They don't sell ads, they sell your data."
collyw 9y ago
How are you so sure of that? Not saying your wrong but you seem very convinced of your own position. I have no idea what exactly they do with my data.